Springfield daily republic. [volume] (Springfield, O. [Ohio]) 1887-1888, 1887-08-06
THE LAWS OF iIEREDITY.
STUDIES DRAWN FROM A COLlEC-
TON OF FAMILY RECORDS


other Quality.
Mr.. Francis Gallon whose studies Oi
the laws of hcredity drawn from Ia. Ia
boTiuus collection Of family records must
be well remembered. has Just printed in
The Fortnightly Review the results uf Lis
investigation uf the facts concerning what
is familiarly called temper, aud partiC
ularly the proportions of good and bad
tempered persons i'll English domestic life
and the hercdIty of temper" We can
not follow all the variations of Mr.. Gal
tons research. or reproduce his ingenious
calculations, but only note a few results
Perhaps il may he thought surprising that
the proportion uf good tempered and bad
tempered persons is almost exactly equal.
The first set Of data which Mr.. Galton
tried gave the proportion Of the good Ia
the bad tempered as - To -, the second
set as IL to 5:} There is little difference
between the two sexes in the frequency of
good and bad temper, but that little is in
favor of the women, since about 40 men
are recorded rs good tempered for every -
who are bad. and conversely - women as
good tempered for ~ who are bad.
OF l,36S children, 32l We're good tenn
pered and 3i2 Were bad, with .0J wanting
special characteristics Of temper. The
good and the bad tempered were thus
equal again, the neutral or medium class
being as numerous a. the other two COM
bined, results which Mr.. Galton says beer
emphatic testimony to the correct judg-
ments of his compilers. As To the au-
thority of these compilers or reporters.
and the capacity of any observers To deal
with the subject. he admits that ''aCCu-
rate discernmcnt and designation of char
acter is almost beyond the reach of any
one but, on the other hand. a rough
knowledge and description of its promi-
ncnt features is easily practicable and
he rightly thinks that there can be little
doubt of the value Of Testimony of a
member of family who has seen and OBJ
served Il person in his unguarded moments
and under very varied circumstances for
many years.
HEREDITY OF TEMPER.
Mr.. Galton is clear upon the important
question of the herelity of temper; he
says it is "as hereditary as any other
quality"
Il have forty three cases where both
parents are recorded as good tempered
and twenty five where they were both bad
tempered. Out of the children of the
former 30 per cent We're good tempered
and 10 per cent. bad: ont of the latter 1
per cent. We're good and - per cent bad
tempered. This is emphatic testimony to
the heredity Of temper"
And he attempted, with still more sue
cess. To answer the converse question: Dc
good tempered families Of brothers and
sisters have, on the whole, good tempered
ancestors, and bad ssmpered families bad
tempered oness \ good tempered family
he defines for the purpose as one in which
at least two members Were good tempered
and none Were bad, and bad tempered
family as one in which at least two mem
bers We're bad tempered, whether or moi
any cases Of good temper were said To bt
associated with them, and. aS regards an
cestOrs. h. takes the two parents and the
uncleS and aunts on both side as the most
trustworthy group On this Mr.. GaltoI
says:
have fcrty-siX good tempered families
with an aggregate Of 333 parents, unCles
and aunts. and seVenty-one bad tempered
families, with 633 parents, uncles and
aunts. In the former group 2G per cent
were good tempered and IL bad: in the
latter group IL We're good tempered and
30 were bad, the remainder being neutral
More briefly We say thai when the family
is good tempered rs above defined tht
number of good tempered parents, uncle.
and aunts exceeds that Of the bad tenn
pered in the proportion of three TO two,
and that when the family is bad tempered
the proportions are exactly reversed. -
New York Post.